Occam's razor, Hickam's dictum and Christianity

Occam's razor is that principle that is often understood being that "among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected." To put it another way, all things being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex ones.

Needless to say, Occam's stranglehold on how we understand God is rather strong. It is how theologians talk about the mystery of something like the atonement but we teach it by way of 3-4 theories. Or we talk about the mystery of the trinity but boil it down to that like an egg or water (see here for a silly little video on why those metaphors are "heretical")

Christians try our very best to try to communicate to the world the vast mystery of the creator of the world can be understood and, the most simple explanation tends to win out because we all prefer Occam to Hickan.

"Hickam's dictum is a counterargument to the use of Occam's razor in the medical profession. The principle is commonly stated: "Patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please"." (wiki)

This sounds weird but the point that Hickam was trying to make is that patients can have many different symptoms that are unrelated and cannot be diagnosed under one simple, elegant explanation for instance Saint's triad.

Christians are not unlike other people in the world in that we desire a simple answer to the questions of the world. We long for someone to just tell us why something is the way it is or what we are supposed to do. We willingly accept someone citing scripture at us, giving us a response that is so tight that is might as well be a package tied up with a bow. The answer looks nice, it is elegant and makes sense. Classic Occam's razor.

The reality is, if Occam's razor does not hold for medicine then it surely does not hold for theology. No matter how elegant the answer may be, when we are talking about God - it is never that simple. Cite me the chapters and verses, point out the creed, quote the theologian, articulate the church council, all of these actions are efforts to prove the razor.

The preachers and teachers that give you a razor's answer provide great comfort. I am a razor pastor myself. However, in my more antithetic moments I will share that I don't have the simple answers. And in my even more truthful moments I will share I don't have the simple answers because no one has them.

Simple answers don't exist when we are talking about God. They never have.

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Hickam's dictum was introduced to me via this wonderfully fantastic podcast episode of "Reply All" - Boy Wonder. 

What to do with the "We Can Also" (WCA) group in my church : a parable

Disclosure, the following has nothing to do with my local church. This is a parable that is fictional and clearly I am not Jesus, so this parable will not be of that standard, but here we go:

There is a new group within my church, called "We Can Also" and I do not know how to pastor them.

This group upholds all the same beliefs of the UMC but requires group members to meet the group's financial dues. The group has a leadership that is self appointed and outside the due process of the lay leadership team nominations and the administrative council approval. And while I love prayer, they are asking the whole church to pray for the group's creation even as many disagree with the creation of the group. Additionally, they are asking group members to advocate for the group's interests and seeking out new people to join the group. The group's leadership sets events on dates that the church has events already scheduled and members are forced to decided if they should attend the new group's events or attend to the previously scheduled church events. The group also seems to downplay the resources from Cokesbury and Upper Room for a newer publishing house.

The group's leadership does not see the creation of this group as violating the Discipline. However, the group's requirements on financial contributions and attendance puts people in a precarious position of choosing if they will take their time and treasure from the larger church in order to support this new group or not.

The new group has been asked to consider the harm they are doing to the church (thus violating the first rule of the UMC), but the new group says they will continue their work since they do not see a violation of the Discipline. And when reminded that there is a higher authority on the interpretation of the discipline, they stated that "We Can Also" interpret the Discipline. They went on to write to their group members that their pastor was out of line to say they are breaking the Discipline and that to call this group's creation into question is just another way members of this group are threatened. They explained they are only forming We Can Also, to support those who interpret the discipline they way they do. hen asked about how they interpret the discipline, the group leadership said that they understand it the "right way" and that if I interpret it differently then they will consider leaving the church.

I have a three primary concerns with the We Can Also group in my church: 

1. I am concerned We Can Also exists in an echo chamber behind a paywall. I am concerned the unintended consequence will be this group will become enslaved to their own thinking and their hearts harden (like that of Pharaoh in Exodus).
2. I am concerned others will be inspired by We Can Also and create their own group and the local Body of Christ will not be a body but disconnected parts (like that of the church in Corinth).
3. I am concerned that if membership to We Can Also requires that one agrees with their positions and pays dues then does offering communion at their meetings violate the open table of Christ? 

Don't like evangelism? You may be doing it wrong.

Early October in the Central Texas Conference is the "Evangelism Summit". This is a one day event that our conference is hosting for all clergy and laity to come and learn about evangelism. There is not much out right now about the desired outcomes of this event, but I assume that is forthcoming so we can better understand the "big hope" for this event. If you are interested in the idea of an evangelism summit, you can see the agenda here and speaker information here. I will be in attendance and invite you to consider it as well.

From what I can see, this summit will be one where we embrace the idea that we are a people who need to share our faith. Additionally, as the number of people involved in the Church decline we need to be better at talking about our faith so to invite new people to Christ. A cynic might see this as a "sales summit", but I see this as a summit to explore the theology of evangelism. 

I do not think that we need more or better ways to talk about our faith. We have the internet in our culture and we have more information at our fingertips than every before. If we cannot share our faith very well, we can pass along information or a video of someone else who has done it masterfully and with great beauty. People have the information at their disposal and so I do not think that we need to talk about how we change people (that is the work of God).

Evangelism is less about changing others and more about allowing God and others to change us.

It is my prayer that the conversations about evangelism are rooted in this core concept that Peter Rollins puts forth:

What Rollins says is that evangelism project is about becoming aware of the harm we (unintentionally) do to others when we practice our faith. He says there are three parts to the project of evangelism:

1. Interact with another who is different from us and ask them about their beliefs
2. Ask the other about their practices
3. Ask the other what we look like to them

In this process we come to the awareness that in our efforts to be Christian we have gone astray and acted or said things that are not Christ-like. When we are aware of the harm we are doing as a Christian faith, we repent of those actions and live differently. When we repent, act differently and live more in line with Love then we embody John 13:34-35. After Jesus washed the feet of his disciples he gave them a new commandment: that we are to love one another and followers of Christ will be known by the way they love. 

Evangelism is about sharing the Good News of Christ, but we cannot teach what we do not know. Like Saul to Paul, evangelism beings with our own conversion. I am attending the Evangelism Summit in the hopes God will move in to me be more like Christ.